Cabinet painting, which is really a question about adhesion

What is cabinet painting?

Painting cabinets means applying an opaque coating over the doors, drawer fronts and face frames, covering the grain entirely and giving access to any colour. It is the cheapest route to a visually different kitchen. Whether it lasts has almost nothing to do with the colour and almost everything to do with two things: what your doors are made of, and how thoroughly the kitchen grease was removed before the primer went on. A typical kitchen takes about a week.

Signs you need cabinet painting

• Doors in sound condition whose colour or wood tone is the thing you dislike
• An oak or pine kitchen where the grain itself is what reads as dated
• Cabinets that have already been painted once and now need a proper job
• You want a two-tone kitchen - different colours on the uppers and the island - which paint makes easy
• A budget that will not stretch to new fronts, on boxes and doors that are structurally fine
• A rental or a house you plan to sell, where visible improvement per pound spent is the priority

Seeing something not on this list? Browse cabinets problems by symptom →

How cabinet painting actually works

1. 1

   Identify the substrate, because it dictates the whole system

   Real wood, MDF, thermofoil and melamine each need a different primer and a different expectation. Thermofoil is a vinyl film and paint has very little to grip. Melamine is a hard, non-porous resin surface. Both are paintable with the right bonding primer and neither forgives a general-purpose one.

   Watch forThe same primer quoted for every kitchen. It is the clearest sign that the substrate was not identified, and substrate is the variable that decides whether the coating survives.

2. 2

   Degrease properly - twice, and then again around the range

   Years of cooking put a fine film of grease on every surface, and it is concentrated on the doors nearest the hob and above the extractor. Paint will not bond through it. Proper degreasing is repeated, done with a purpose-made cleaner, and rinsed.

   Watch forA quick wipe with household cleaner. Adhesion failure from residual grease is the single most common reason painted cabinets fail, and it always begins on the doors either side of the range.

3. 3

   Remove, label and abrade every surface

   Doors, drawer fronts and hardware come off and are labelled to their openings. Every surface is sanded to give the primer a key - not to remove the old finish, which is what refinishing does, but to break the sheen so the coating can bite.

   Watch forDoors painted in place on their hinges. It leaves paint on the hinge, an unpainted strip at the edge, and runs down the face frame, and every one of those is visible for the life of the kitchen.

4. 4

   Prime with the right product for the substrate

   The primer is the layer doing the actual work. Bonding primers grip difficult surfaces; stain-blocking primers stop tannin from oak and knotty timber bleeding through a pale topcoat, which is a genuine and very visible failure.

   Watch forA pale colour going onto oak or knotty pine without a stain-blocking primer. The tannin bleed appears as yellow-brown patches weeks later and the only fix is to prime and repaint.

5. 5

   Spray the topcoat - in a shop if possible

   Sprayed cabinet enamel is the finish people are actually picturing: smooth, hard and without brush texture. Doing it in a controlled shop environment gives a cleaner result than a masked-off kitchen, though good on-site work with proper containment is achievable.

   Watch forWall paint on cabinets. Cabinet coatings are formulated to cure hard and to resist handling and cleaning; a standard interior paint on a door front stays soft and marks with a fingernail.

6. 6

   Cure before use, and expect the first weeks to be delicate

   Cabinet enamels are dry to touch quickly and fully cured much later. Fronts closed against bumpers too early can stick and pull the film, and the finish reaches its final hardness over weeks rather than days.

   Watch forA crew rehanging doors on the last afternoon with no cure guidance. Ask for the manufacturer's cure time and add bumpers only once the finish has hardened.

What does cabinet painting cost?

Cabinet painting is priced by door and drawer count plus the face frames, and it is the least expensive of the keep-the-boxes options. Sprayed shop finishing costs more than on-site brush and roller and is worth the difference on doors. See the cabinets cost guide for current ranges.

See the full cabinet painting cost guide - by material, size and region →

If the number is the problem, here are the ways people pay for it →